seeps

Sorry - I didn't mean to imply you get a ton of stats and / or prob questions. I vaguely remember getting at least 1 prob question. I only mention the stats / prob portion because it was my least prepared area and prior to writing the exam I knew that if I got a moderately hard question it was going to be 50 / 50 chance on whether I will get it right.

I memorized about 150 to 225 words. In retrospec, I wish I had spent a little more time on the verbal and I only started focusing on it within the last couple of weeks before the exam. My advice, on the quantitative section: 1. Read everything and do everything in the PowerPrep Math Review 2. Read everything and do everything in Barron's 3. Read everything and do everything in Princeton Review Barron's does not cover stats and probability very well and believe me, when you are scoring high, you get some of these (ouch) :(. This was my weakest area because I didn't spend enough time on it. The most important thing (to me) was practice, practice, practice. Make sure and practice almost every time you have a study session. BTW - I love math, so it was much easier to practice math that to practice verbal :) On another note, I only spent two months preparing for the GRE. If it wasn't for the changes (to the GRE exam) being implemented in November and the fact that admission deadlines were in mid-December, I probably would have spent a little more time studying to get a better verbal.

I wrote the GRE at the end of October and although I didn't get a great score in verbal, I was primarily concentrating on scoring high in the quantitative section. I also figured that a higher analytical score will offset a weaker verbal score (hopefully this theory is correct) :hmm:. I could have probably done much better in verbal, but the quantitative section totally threw me off. During the exam, I could have sworn I had done much worse. I kept getting these really hard questions. For the last minute of the exam, I had three questions to answers and I had to guess for each one! After the quantitative section I had another verbal section, but by that time, my brain was so fried (because I thought I did badly) that it was really hard to concentrate. I believe if I could have kept my game face on, I would have done better (assuming the second verbal was not the research section!). :( To prepare, I used Barron's (my main source) and Princeton. I did every single practice question in the quantitative section in each book. My scores in the practice tests were nowhere near what I got in the final exam. My first PowerPrep exam was 640, then 670, then 750. I don't really count the 750 because a couple questions were repeats when I got the 640 score. After I got the 750, I tried the online exams from Princeton a couple days later and got around 700. So you could understand that I was pleasantly surprise to get 780. In doing a post-analysis after the exam, I know understand why the exam was so hard, it's a computer adaptive test so if you do well in the beginning, they'll keep throwing you the harder questions. All I could say is that they made me work from that 780. I didn't prepare for the analytical section, primarily because I could write fairly well. I only did one practice exam to get a feel of what the questions might be like. The Barron's advice on this section was extremely helpful. My only other advice, and I believe it has been given here already, is that the GRE is really a test of stamina (besides knowledge). Besides pacing yourself (which I believe I did fairly well), you need to make sure you still stay motivated. Some background information in case there are others like me - I got my B.S. about 12 years ago and decided to pursue my M.S. and (hopefully) Ph.D. It was an interesting journey preparing for the GRE, having been out of 'school' for so long. I studies about three to four times a week, spending about 4 hours each time. About three weeks before the exam I discovered the benefits of the drink 'Red Bull' and the intense caffeine allowed me to push even more (you know I'm joking here - right?) :tup: Good luck in your exam. Best Regards,

After reading some more posts on AWA on this forum - I've decided not to purchase any tokens. I think the general feeling is that the AWA section is not as crtical as the other two and I felt it would just be a waste of money.

I was getting ready to use the online practice test from Princeton Review and was prompted for the option to purchase tokens for the LiveGrader service. Has anyone used this service? If so, any thoughts you'll like to share? How does it compare to the real test? I'm going to purchase some tokens so at least I get an idea as to how well I'm writing. I'll post my experience but given that I haven't written the GRE exam as yet, I wouldn't be able to comment on how it compares :hmm:

Thanks ... if my results are not too shameful ... I'll post it next week :)

Yeah - I'm still kind of skeptical about listening to audio files. I tried it once while driving but maybe that was the wrong time to do it. I've decided to do the flash cards and learn the high frequency word lists from Barrons and PrincetonReview. Hopefully this would be sufficient as all I need is a decent grade vs a great grade for English :hmm:

Hi, Does anyone have any suggestions on how best to learn the vocab lists? With the math section, the strategy is easy (for me), you learn the concepts and practice, practice, practice. I've never been one to memorize lists and so it's more difficult to learn 500, 5000, or more words. Once suggestion I've seen so far is using audio files but how regularly do you listen to them? How often? Another example I've seen is using flash cards. What's the best way to use flash cards? How often? How many words at a time? How many words can one person (realistically) learn in 2 weeks? BTW I have been preparing for the GRE for the past 1.5 months but I've concentrating on the other areas and left the vocab for last. Thanks,